


Imaginary

by RobronSugdenDingle



Series: 31 days of Christmas 2019 [3]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21659983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobronSugdenDingle/pseuds/RobronSugdenDingle
Summary: In which Alex thinks Aaron is imagining his boyfriend and as a concerned friend, tries to help.
Relationships: Aaron Dingle/Robert Sugden
Series: 31 days of Christmas 2019 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559164
Comments: 5
Kudos: 44





	Imaginary

**Author's Note:**

> There is not enough POV outsider fics for Robron. So have this!

  
The first time Alex met Robert, it was purely accidental. He was standing in an aisle in Asda, picking up everything that had a yellow reduced sticker, anything that was about to go out of date and cost less than two quid.

University life sucked...

But he wasnt quitting obviously. He worked hard to get into medicine, and dammit, he came too far to go back. He reached for a pack of six watermelon slices when a hand grabbed it first and Alex flinched. He looked up to see who had stolen his cheap treat and noticed it was a young blonde man, busy on the phone.

"Yeah I know, I'm on my way back anyways! Eh? No, pause it! Come on, I bought treats an everything! Aaron if you start that movie withou-I said wait!"

Alex only blinked in confusion. The guy must have loved that movie...

Nevertheless, he completely forgot about that quick interaction with Robert anyways.  
....................

A few weeks after that encounter, he had a match on his dating app and they chatted for a small time, before finally agreeing to meet one another. So he dressed in a pale blue shirt and went off to his local, the Woolpack. He waited and waited until he realised nobody was coming and then a large glass of beer was roughly placed down in front of him. 

A bearded man smiled at him sadly and coughed.

"Stood up?"

"Seems like it...you too?"

"Me? No, no, my boyfriends just heading home. He's stressed about exams an all that coming up"

Alex nodded.

"Right? Do you also go to Hotten uni then?"

"Yeah, I'm training to be a mechanic so that's alright. What about you? Let me guess...media?"

"Nah. Medicine. Planning on becoming a doctor aren't I? What does your boyfriend do?"

"Business. Hes well into it aswell, I dont understand the whole thing though if I'm honest but then again who actually does?"

Alex raised his glass and tapped it against Aaron's glass with a small clink noise. He took a large gulp of beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"So...what's your name again?"

"Aaron..."

He trailed off and looked behind Alex's shoulder because suddenly his boyfriend was standing behind the bar waving his hand frantically, silently telling Aaron to go over to him. He walked away and Aaron smiled and nodded and sipped his drink.

Alex, who noticed Aaron's weird and sudden smile, furrowed his eyebrows and turned around to see who he was talking to. Nobody?

What the hell?

...........

Shortly after that, Alex had asked Aaron to help him be his study partner, despite Aaron knowing nothing to do with medicine, so he simply read out the flashcards and Alex answered the questions on the back of them. If Alex was honest, it felt kind of babyish to study like this since he was twenty, but it worked so well for him...

They ended up taking a short break and Aaron offered to get them both a coffee that had an obnoxious gay name since they were sitting in a gay cafe (who knew those were a thing?) and he sighed.

"Have you found a new bloke yet?"

Aaron took a sip of his latte, the foam creating a new moustache over his real one.

"Me? No. I deleted that app straight after, dont know what I was thinking even trying that to be honest. How's everything...with you and your boyfriend?"

Aaron nodded with a smile.

"Really good. We bought a house a few months ago and waited for the builders to finish with it. They finished the other day actually so we're moving in together this weekend"

"Moving in together? I...not to sound rude but how old are yous?"

"I'm 21, Roberts 22, why?"

"21...you...I mean I'm happy for you an all...but dont you think that's a little young?"

"Yeah, we're young, but we've been together all through school, grew up together...its not as if we're getting married..."

Alex nodded, but couldn't help to glance at Aaron's finger. Thankfully there was no ring there. Honestly...he thought this man was supposed to be smart...not hopelessly in love with his boyfriend that...they bought a house together! Who does that?!

"I...I mean, we were engaged at one point, but then, we were pretty drunk so..."

Alex nodded though he wasn't sure why. Aaron glanced at his phone and looked up.

"Sorry, I'm gonna take this outside, its Robert. Hiya...she did?! When?!"

The door to the cafe shut and Aaron was seen through the glass window as he spoke to Robert on the phone. Alex frowned. He had yet to meet this Robert...Aaron hadn't really described him as much except that he studied hard because he was passionate about his work...

He sipped his coffee when two girls came over to his table. They smiled at him and then nodded their heads towards Aaron outside. 

"You speak to Aaron Dingle?"

Alex nodded and the girl with braids giggled and made a ghost noise. The girl with piercings laughed and then sighed.

"Good luck with him...hes well freaky. Can see the dead and everything. Just dont get his temperature up"

Braids laughed once more and they both walked away, leaving Alex confused and mildly concerned. Aaron...could see the dead?

Ok...ok...he was studying this...sort of. He was studying medicine...he could totally do this!

But...he hadn't seen Robert around, had never met the guy and last time in the Woolpack...

He paled.

Oh god...Aaron was convinced he was in a relationship with a dead person!

When Aaron returned, he sat down and pocketed his phone.

"Alright? I was getting Robert to wave to you, but you looked lost in your own world"

"Really?"

"Yeah. Anyways what were they wanting? They're in my class actually..."

"Uhh...nothing. Just saying hi. Umm...so where's Robert now?"

"Oh. He's heading to his sisters, tell her the good news about us and the home and stuff. If we're lucky...we might get another surprise after we graduate"

Aaron chuckled to himself and Alex frowned. He felt so bad for Aaron...he clearly must be so lonely that his brain has created images of this imaginary boyfriend...and now the imaginary boyfriend has a sister?!

What was the other surprise? An imaginary dog?!

He just smiled though...smile....

..........

The more Alex hung out with Aaron, the more he realised...Aaron was clearly unwell. He was clearly hallucinating and they were getting worse!!!

Like the other day, when they studied in the same gay cafe, Aaron had waved to Robert who was apparently standing outside and walking by. When Alex turned to see him, he was gone...

Poor Aaron...

Or the other time that they went out for late night drinks because Alex passed one of his units leading up to his big exam. They went out to a club and Aaron had told Alex that he was going to see if he could find Robert in the dancefloor and he should probably hang back and see if he could chat up anyone. Alex tried to look long and hard for Aaron and Robert but the only thing he saw half an hour later, was Aaron walking out the bathroom.

Alone!

He then watched as Aaron suddenly disappeared into the crowd full of dancing people when his shoulder was tapped and he turned to face a guy with brown hair.

"Hi..."

"Hi...are you with anyone?"

Well...straight to the point...

"No. I'm here with my friend but he..."

He looked to see if he could find Aaron and managed to get a glimpse of his green jumper as he left the club with...no-one by the looks of it...

"My friend just went home so I'm all yours"

When Alex woke up the next morning with a literal pain in his backside, he saw a chain of texts from Aaron, the first one congratulating him for getting with that 'fit brown haired guy from the bar and then a drunken mashup of random letters and then several texts from an hour ago, begging him not to listen to the voicemail he accidentally left. 

Voicemail?

Well...his phone barely worked and it acted weird so the only way for his voicemails to disappear was if he listened to it first and then deleted it...

At least that's what he thought to himself.

He pressed on the voicemail, held it to his ear and waited. Silence...silence...more silen-oh...

He heard something...

He turned up the volume.

Something again...Aaron laughing? Was it supposed to be a prank voicemail? How childish...

Aaron laughing again and then-oh...oh god...

As soon as he heard Aaron moan Robert's name, he shouted and threw the phone away. Great...now Aaron was sending him voicemails of him pretending to have sex with an imaginary person...it was official...he needed to help his first patient. He needed to make Aaron see sense because this was not healthy!

Especially sending your mate a voicemail of you jacking off!

.....................

So he decided to confront Aaron over it the next time he mentioned Robert, which so happened to be over lunch in the Woolpack.

"I told him several times aswell, but he's insisting on these throws, apparently we can expect guests an all that...Robert's really-"

"Aaron, just shut up about Robert already!"

"Eh?"

"Look, this whole pretending thing, it's not healthy!"

Aaron just looked lost and that annoyed Alex more.

"Pretending? What am I pretending exactly?"

"That you've got a boyfriend called Robert! Hes not real Aaron! You're sick! But it's fine because you can easily get help an all...so let me help you..."

"Help? What the...are you calling me insane?! What the fuck?"

"No! You're not insane! Of course you're not! You're clearly very lonely, so lonely that your brain has created some mystery man for you!"

Aaron stared at him in disbelief before scoffing and he packed up his things in his bag. Alex knew this would be his last chance to help, it had to be! He had scared Aaron off and he was running away...no! He was going to be a doctor in the future! He couldn't let Aaron run away...

"Aaron please let me help you!"

"Help? You think I'm dreaming up my boyfriend!"

Alex grabbed onto Aaron's hand as a last resort and pleaded once more. As soon as he pleaded, a man walked over and pressed his lips against Aaron's cheek. Aaron relaxed immediately and when Alex looked up at the blonde who was staring at their joined hands, he let go of Aaron's hand and coughed.

"Alex, this is Robert, my imaginary boyfriend..."

Robert looked at Aaron, clearly confused and Alex opened his mouth to apologise when Aaron took Robert's hand in his and stormed out. When they stepped outside, Alex saw Aaron and Robert share a quick kiss and then watched as Robert listened to Aaron's crazy explanation, looked through the window and glared at Alex. 

Oh no...  
......................

As a future doctor, Alex realised that he had to admit when he was wrong, so he called (begged) Aaron to sit down with him at the nearest coffee shop (Costa) and bring Robert along too if he wanted. 

He got a snarky 'sure and I'll tell Robert to bring his ID so he can prove hes real too' comment from Aaron, but nodded and waited for Aaron to show up. He watched the door like a hawk and straightened up in his seat when Robert and Aaron stepped through. 

He waved awkwardly and Robert and Aaron sat down in front of him, Aaron looking much calmer than the day before.

"Umm...I wanted to apologise. I've been caught in so much of my studies that I...I shouldn't have acted like that..."

When Robert noticed that Aaron wouldnt be saying anything, he stepped in and smiled.

"Why did you think he was imagining me anyways?"

"Well...I'd never seen a picture of you before! He never showed me...and everytime he said you were near, you werent even there!"

Aaron frowned.

"Eh? Like when?"

"Like that time in the Woolie! You were staring over at my shoulder into nothing!"

"Wh-Robert was at the back! My mum owns the place, so he was in the back!"

Alex made an oh sound and he sighed.

"Well...what about that time in...in the gay cafe! You said yous were moving in together and you went outside...these girls came over and told me you see dead people!"

Aaron groaned and covered his red face. Robert chuckled and then knocked his shoulder into his boyfriends.

"Aaron accidentally took a pill...drank a lot and then the next day he was sick, his temperature raised like crazy and he began to hallucinate. He was convinced that he was seeing his dead dog..."

"But none of that was my fault!"

Aaron rubbed his red face even more and Robert laughed again. Alex sipped his coffee, wondering what the hell he had taken...

"But...the club?"

Aaron glared.

"Alex, no offense mate, you were well steaming. And the place was packed...no wonder you didnt see Robert that time..."

"Umm..."

"Anything else?"

Alex frowned, wondered if he could think of anything...well, there was one more thing...

"I...I don't-"

"Don't what?"

"Its embarrassing...your voicemail..."

The couple blushed furiously and Robert dug into his messenger bag to pull out a pack of fruit. It had a bright yellow sticker and he peeled it open and took out a watermelon slice and took a bite. Alex didnt bother trying to correct him by telling him that food from outside wasnt really allowed inside but...

Something about that yellow sticker rang bells in his head...

"Ahh! You're the one who stole my watermelon!"

"Eh?"

"Umm...nevermind. Uhh, I'm sorry. Again for thinking you were..."

Aaron smiled as Robert looked at his watermelon in confusion.

"Nah its alright"

"Ok then...so...what's the surprise you were talking about then? When you were telling me about you guys moving in together and stuff..."

Robert elbowed Aaron and glared at him, clearly unimpressed with what his boyfriend had shared.

"You told him?"

"I...not exactly! Just that there would be a surprise..."

"Aaron for God's sake!"

"Well I'm sorry if I'm excited about getting a baby for Christmas Robert!"

Alex's jaw nearly fell to the floor.

"Yous...are having a kid?"

"Well...for christmas. It is only April"

"Speaking of April...shes our surrogate by the way...shes texted earlier, wants to meet up for a chat, so we should probably..."

Aaron nodded and stood.

"Yeah you're right. See you tomorrow Alex"

Alex only waved and Robert said his silent goodbye with a nod. He watched them walk away and felt a sharp pain pinch his heart and twist his stomach. Is this what young lovers looked like after all?

God...he was so jealous...what was his one night stand called again?

**Author's Note:**

> Robert and Aaron are in their final year of Uni which is why they're doing all these plans right now and because they're in love so why not? Robert is magically rich and canon Emmerdale doesnt exist *sobs*


End file.
